Top Law Schools

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The Biglaw payscale goes 160, 170, 185, 210, 230, 250... with bonuses on top of that. So at any point on the continuum you'll very often be taking a paycut to go in-house. It's also not like all these jobs are available at all times; most companies expect you to come from the firm with the set of skills they need, so if you didn't learn those skills or haven't yet learned them, those in-house jobs won't be available to you.

The other big thing is that if you move to a legal department at a big company too early you may very well be stuck in that role for a long time. In-house legal roles often provide very little opportunity for advancement (which is where the real salary increases are), so as with most career moves it's important to pick the right one and not just jump at the first opportunity.

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luckystar84 wrote: 160-250 is the NYC/SF/DC/etc payscale. if you multiply 148-205k by 1.4 (in house 4-9 yrs), you easily overshoot that. I know there are bonuses but I just know Cravath's bonuses are about 15-25k for a first year. Do they go up from there? And in-house has bonuses too.

The point about not leaving before picking up the requisite skills (lol beyond due diligence) is a good one, but the data doesn't seem to support the statement that you take a paycut by jumping from a biglaw job @ X percentile to an inhouse job @ X percentile.

1st year market bonuses have been 10k the last couple of years. They do go up from there.

The problem with the data you have is that it puts 4th and 9th year people together. A 4th year associate on the Cravath scale made 210k plus a bonus of 27k. A 9th year associate, to the extent those exist, is making more than 300k with bonuses. A senior associate with 7-9 years experience is typically going to have better in-house options than his fourth year colleague, but the senior is making more money at the law firm. I can assure you after looking into this path and talking with numerous associates (who have each been contacted endlessly by recruiters) that you can generally expect to take a pay cut when going in-house. Not 100% of the time by any means, but far more often than not.

One other thing to think about is that as you get far enough along in experience for the best in-house options to start presenting themselves, partnership starts looming as a possibility. The vast majority of associates won't make partner, but the vast majority of associates don't make it to their sixth year either, so if you've made it that far I imagine the temptation to stick it out becomes pretty strong.

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one flaw in your reasoning is that unless your experience at the law firm is DIRECTLY on point and relevant to the in-house position you want, you will probably not go from 6th year firm salary to 6th year in-house salary. you will probably lose a few class years in salary when you make the jump.

the other thing is while biglaw firms are pretty consistent across the board, in-house positions vary considerably and salary and you have a 50/50 chance of hitting below median on the salary curve when you want to move (even assuming you maintain the same year seniority in pay).

luckystar84 wrote:

Tiago Splitter wrote:The Biglaw payscale goes 160, 170, 185, 210, 230, 250... with bonuses on top of that. So at any point on the continuum you'll very often be taking a paycut to go in-house. It's also not like all these jobs are available at all times; most companies expect you to come from the firm with the set of skills they need, so if you didn't learn those skills or haven't yet learned them, those in-house jobs won't be available to you.

The other big thing is that if you move to a legal department at a big company too early you may very well be stuck in that role for a long time. In-house legal roles often provide very little opportunity for advancement (which is where the real salary increases are), so as with most career moves it's important to pick the right one and not just jump at the first opportunity.

160-250 is the NYC/SF/DC/etc payscale. if you multiply 148-205k by 1.4 (in house 4-9 yrs), you easily overshoot that. I know there are bonuses but I just know Cravath's bonuses are about 15-25k for a first year. Do they go up from there? And in-house has bonuses too.

The point about not leaving before picking up the requisite skills (lol beyond due diligence) is a good one, but the data doesn't seem to support the statement that you take a paycut by jumping from a biglaw job @ X percentile to an inhouse job @ X percentile.

Entry to mid guy in a GC office is not getting a 40% cash bonus. At a middle of the road F1000 Cash bonus is maybe 10% and real equity grants only to people at VP/SVP level (title varies by org chart) and higher. Most of the people I know who are in-house left the firm in the 3rd/4th year range and have all-in comp in the 135-190k range with one outlier at 200k+. The only one, of a handful, I know who didn't take at least some pay cut went in-house at a major PE firm.

AllTheLawz wrote:
Entry to mid guy in a GC office is not getting a 40% cash bonus. At a middle of the road F1000 Cash bonus is maybe 10% and real equity grants only to people at VP/SVP level (title varies by org chart) and higher. Most of the people I know who are in-house left the firm in the 3rd/4th year range and have all-in comp in the 135-190k range with one outlier at 200k+. The only one, of a handful, I know who didn't take at least some pay cut went in-house at a major PE firm.

Really depends on the individual company's compensation structure and whether or not the cash bonus is a true bonus or a variable component to pay. I know of a F100 that pays its lawyers a base in the range of $120k-200k + a yearly variable component meant to have a yearly average of 20-40% of base on a five-year rolling basis. Variable component is determined by objective company-wide benchmarks. On top of that, 10% of employees will receive a discretionary bonus that can reach up to 10% of base.

At this company, a normal year is $145k-$350k. Rare to have weekend work (three or four times a year?), 5 weeks vacation/personal days per year + 6 days that are considered company holidays.